


Exit, Pursued By Bear

by meowgicmage (queerfindings)



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cullen Takes Things Seriously, Doodles, Fluff, Gen, war table shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 10:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15816729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerfindings/pseuds/meowgicmage
Summary: Cullen tries to stay awake at a war table meeting, does an art, thinks Josephine is pretty.





	Exit, Pursued By Bear

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this art http://gemwilly.tumblr.com/post/108276452815/draw-cullen-drawing-a-crappy-picture-for-josephine

Had he been fully engaged, Cullen would never have dozed off at a meeting. They'd gone over the portion of the reports for the soldiers already, and now Josephine had the floor- and an ominously large stack of paper that turned out to be the agreements she made with the merchant princes. So it was that boredom opened the door and drowsiness slipped in behind his eyelids to draw the shades. 

He shifted in his chair as inconspicuously as he could without looking like he was fidgeting like a choir boy during the Chant. It did little to stir his mind back to wakefulness. He sat up straight, only to have the ambassador pause and look his direction. 

“Yes, Commander?” 

“Huh- oh, oh, no please continue I, um, leg fell asleep. My apologies.” He sat perfectly straight and pasted a look of interest on his face until she raised an eyebrow at him, but turned back to the general audience once more and continued her report. Even her lovely voice could do little for the monotony. Cullen could practically feel himself drifting off little by little. He cast about the room for something to occupy his hands. When her gaze swept over him again, he picked up the quill and put it to paper out of sheer panic. Josephine gave him a little smile this time. Andraste’s ass now she thought he was taking notes! 

Cullen pulled the quill across the parchment in an idle scroll just to look like he was doing something and dropped back into a habit from boyhood that had gotten his knuckles rapped so many times at school. A rough shape of Corypheus took form along one edge of the parchment. He added a scribble around the head to illustrate the spikes of red lyrium, and soon his focus was utterly engrossed in his doodle. At least he was no longer in danger of falling asleep. 

Trevelyan broke first. He jerked upright where he was trying not to fall asleep as well, and stretched. 

“Maker, Josephine, how long is this?” He asked. She smiled at him, but the look in her eye made everyone in its path- Trevelyan, Cassandra, one scribe and two soldiers at the wall behind- unconsciously straighten up. 

“Never mind,” he muttered. “Sorry. I know this is…important.” Cassandra elbowed him subtly. “Thank you for taking the time to explain this to us.”

Cullen could handle soldiers and visiting officers, Maker even King Alistair once, but he freely admitted emissaries spooked him more than he'd ever say out loud. For Josephine to deal with them all day, and joyfully, put her high in his esteem, never mind the fact it meant he didn't have to deal with them. He put quill to parchment once more, and Josephine bloomed in a hasty scribble. It was hard to get that frightening expression right when he had the artistic talent of a child, but he had to try. 

“Make her sleeves poofier,” Leliana suggested from his left in a whisper, and he barely contained his startled yelp. It was entirely too easy to forget she was there if she wasn't in direct sight, and anyone else would have made him nervous for it, but he liked her well enough. Thus her ability to completely slip his mind without the alarm bell of his soldier’s instinct. He glanced at her, then swirled full circles out at the shoulders of his drawing. 

“Her skirt too,” she whispered. He gave the small ambassador a fierce amount of skirts and hoops to transform her into a figure to be reckoned with. Leliana nodded. They both sat back when Josephine’s gaze passed over them. He shifted a little to the side and scribbled out a figure sneaking up behind Corypheus with a knife. He couldn't figure out how to draw her hood quite right, and the attempt failed, but he got the armor mainly recognizable and the scary eyebrows really drove the point home. When he looked over at Leliana, she was laughing silently behind her hand. 

“Yes, Leliana?” Josephine focused The Look on her this time. 

“That tax proposal is ludicrous. I have information that can be used to negotiate it down, he is only trying to bully us.”

“Quite,” the ambassador relaxed with a genuine smile. “I will speak to you afterward.”

Cullen made a note to ask Leliana if she would teach him how to be that quick in deflecting a question. She caught his eye again and twitched her finger at him. When Josephine turned her back, she took the parchment and quill from him. He fought the urge to peek and instead kept watch on the ambassador to ensure they wouldn't be caught. 

Leliana passed it back and he snorted behind his hand. In similar childish fashion, a small figure with a simple smiley face shouted “Get stuffed!” in block letters from a lion's head that more closely resembled a barn cat. Corypheus’ mouth had been redrawn into a circle of outrage. Cullen added a row of bushes behind him and drew Jim the scout peering out. When he hesitated on how to represent the expression, Leliana motioned to him once more. He passed the quill and paper quickly. The drawing she passed back made him choke a little. She wiggled her eyebrows at him. How had she perfectly portrayed the caricature of a creeping smile so perfectly? Still, that was Jim the scout alright, lurking behind the bushes to watch Cullen wave his sword around- which Leliana had helpfully labeled “Stabby the sword” in her light script. He dubbed her knife “Sneaky MacShiv.” 

“Let me see it again, I want to do Cassandra,” she whispered, and he gladly obliged. This was the most exciting meeting they'd had since they defeated Corypheus. 

Finally, the meeting wound to a close, and he stood to make his escape, their masterpiece lifted nearly against his chest so no one could see it. He almost made his escape when Josephine caught him. She smiled up at him, a real smile that always made his cheeks a little warm the way her eyes crinkled at the corners and dimples popped into her cheeks. 

“I must say you surprised me today, Commander.”

“I…did?” This could go nowhere good. 

“I have never seen you so intent on my reports.” She glanced at the rest of the room, and her mouth twisted a little. “I know the subject is dry, but I can hardly leave the Inquisitor in the dark about such matters. I am making these agreements on his behalf after all.”

“Well, ah, your efforts are sincerely appreciated,” Cullen tried to cheer her up. If she pouted he might fall all over himself to fix it, and he was rarely dignified around women, especially those as elegant and lovely as Josephine. 

“I know that now! I am so interested to see what your thoughts on the agreements are.” Her eyes fell to the piece of parchment in his hands and Cullen realized he'd walked right into a battle from which there was no recovery. Leliana gave him a sympathetic look over Josephine's head. Caught as she was by one of her scouts, there was no incoming rescue. Cullen took a deep breath and looked down at Josephine once more. 

“Oh, this is…it's…my handwriting is-” He huffed and handed it over. “Maker I'm sorry Josephine, I really was listening. You're the ambassador and if you made the agreements I know they're solid because you're the smartest person I know and I sincerely do appreciate all the hard work you do to keep Skyhold running. We would truly be lost without you.”

When he dared look at her, she was still transfixed by the artwork that spanned most of the page. She giggled at first, and then laughed, and continued to laugh until tears came and the few remaining people in the room were all staring at them.

“May I keep this, Commander?” She finally gasped out. He nodded, just relieved she wasn't going to scold him. “Oh goodness. Thank you.” She brushed tears away carefully so as not to smudge her eyeliner too badly. “Sometimes I need a reminder that it's not all serious.” She leaned up to kiss his cheek, and while Cullen was still attempting to contain his furious blushing, she tucked it on her clipboard and whisked out of the room.


End file.
